All Articles by Chris Johnson

A friend sent me this fascinating article called, How To Earn More Links: Adding Context To Content Analysis. The article goes ahead and analyzes how smaller sites like Financial Samurai can compete with larger sites like CNBC, CNN Money, and the New York Times in personal finance related topics. The first thing they did was […]

I’m pretty pumped the FIRE movement is picking up steam as I’ve written about achieving financial independence since 2009 on Financial Samurai. Due to the increase in popularity, several of my old articles are being picked up and are being read via search engines again. Major media outlets have e-mailed to republish some of those […]

On January 17, 2017, I published that I was delaying updating Financial Samurai to HTTPS. The reasons were simple: 1) I wanted to give my webmaster more time to gain experience doing the conversion to minimize screwups 2) My CPC ad provider wasn’t ready for the switch and said advertising revenue would go down ~60% […]

One of the things that helps keep me writing 3X a week for the past eight years is a simple visualization exercise. I imagine sitting at the edge of a cliff on a warm sunny day. I can see an island 80 miles in the distance because the air is crystal clear. In my hand is a […]

Google and the SEO community have been encouraging website owners to convert from HTTP to HTTPS since 2014. The idea is to create a more secure internet so that hackers can’t steal passwords and information that users input online. It’s a good idea, but it’s not a thoroughly flushed out idea. As a result, it’s always […]

When you first begin, blogging is like fishing off a canoe in the middle of a tranquil lake. Most of the time, nothing happens. You’ll just feel some little nibbles here and there. But fish long enough and you might catch something big enough to eat. I’m envious of all you new bloggers. Every post […]

Nothing is certain in the online world because new technologies and trends pop up all the time. Given we’re still in the early period of the Internet, it’s important to have as many different revenue streams as possible. We know that CPC advertising (Google Adsense, Media.net, Lijit Networks, etc) is currently being assaulted by ad blockers. […]

One of the downfalls of writing meatier content online is that more readers aren’t able to get through the entire article. Everybody has ADHD nowadays thanks to the internet. Due to a lack of reader thoroughness, readers will increase their tendency to ask questions to answers that are already in the article. It’s a maddening […]

With the downturn in the stock market, interest in financial products as measured by click through rates have declined. Why would anybody want to sign up for a robo-advisor now when there’s a higher chance of losing money? We all know we should continue to dollar cost average in a downturn, but at the margin, more […]

After seven years of blogging, I’ve decided to finally focus some energy writing about how to make money blogging. My online income is now greater than my passive income, which took 15 years to build. Meanwhile, 94% of the over 500 voters say they want to learn how to make their own money-making website in my latest poll. […]

I’ve noticed something quite peculiar. Despite my blog’s traffic up more than 10X in the past five years, the number of comments per post have declined. I used to regularly produce posts that would regularly get over 100 comments during my earlier years. Nowadays, not so much. To figure out what went “wrong,” I did […]

In 2008, I was just another fan of personal finance blogs. I loved following people’s journeys to achieving a particular net worth goal or paying down boatloads of debt they mistakenly gotten themselves into. Then shit really started hitting the fan in 2009 as the economy collapsed thanks to folks over leveraging themselves in the […]

The great thing about a blog is that it’s always on. Unlike most of us, who run out of energy after 12 hours of work, a blog can keep working for us 24/7, 365 days of the year if our hosting company doesn’t crash! Good thing the data shows most sites are up 99%+ of […]

For the past month I’ve been driving for Uber anywhere between 5 – 15 hours a week. It’s been a very insightful experience, learning about the different types of passengers, as well as the reaction I get when I tell them I’m a blogger. I encourage everybody, rich or poor, to work a minimum wage […]

The Wall Street Journal announced on June 18, 2015 that they will be laying off roughly 100 staff and most of their personal finance journalists. The news isn’t a huge shock given Dow Jones’ results were down 11% YoY in the third quarter of 2015. But it was a surprise to see that most of […]

The larger your site grows, the more inundated you will get with requests to highlight a product, company, or service. It makes sense given your sphere of influence has grown. And as your sphere of influence grows, so does your revenue. But not everything has to be about making more money online. I write mostly […]

The larger your website grows, the larger your website will likely continue to grow. It’s a virtuous cycle that makes blogging easier the longer you survive. You just need to get past that first two or three year wasteland, that most all of us go through where we wonder whether it’s all worth it or […]

One of the big surprises to come out of blogging was not the realization that I could one day leave my full-time job in finance. That epiphany came when I received an advertising request on my iPhone while chilling at a bar on top of Santorini in the Fall of 2011. The biggest surprise about blogging […]

There are several research studies that point to $75,000 a year where happiness increases no further. The $75,000 is largely derived through day job income given most folks do not have any other income sources. I make an argument that $200,000 is the income level where happiness increases no further due to various tax credit […]

One of the reasons why public writing is so addicting is because there’s a chance somebody important out there might read what you’re writing and highlight it to somebody else important. Your traffic starts to surge and your site might even crash due to server overload. If this happens, congratulations! You have found your Whale […]

After three open houses and a couple hours of analysis, I thought I picked the top 5 rental candidates with the best financial records, but I was wrong. All was fine until my fourth and last open house when a 28 year old single guy who graduated from CalTech came in and applied. He is […]

I love blogging. I love blogging so much that sometimes I forget to eat dinner because I’m busy responding to comments, writing posts, and socializing online with friends. If I was a high school student again, I think my parents would worry about my health and offline social life. I can hear my father now, […]

While the IRS considers receipts derived from real estate investments “passive income,” the fact of the matter is owning and managing property is typically anything but passive. And frankly, should you approach it as such, you’re likely to find success to be elusive. With that said, if you’re wondering what to expect when you invest in […]

Happy holidays everyone! It’s easy to get in the mindset of posting less because traffic is lower during the holidays. But I encourage everyone to maintain their normal cadence or even take things up a notch! The first reason to post more when there is less traffic is to counteract less traffic. The main reason […]

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